According to The Nikkei Asian Review, the Development Bank of Japan and America's GE Energy Financial Services have established a fund that will invest in operating solar power plants, raising money from institutional investors looking for promising opportunities in a low-interest-rate environment.
The state-backed bank will invest 33% of the total, while the energy investment arm of General Electric will contribute 10%. Nippon Life Insurance, JA Mitsui Leasing and two other companies have already decided to invest in the fund, which is expected to reach as high as 90 billion yen ($US 801 million).
There are around 10 funds in Japan focusing on solar power and other sources of renewable energy, but the new fund will be the largest, should it reach its target. The fund expects returns of at least 5% for investors. A subsidiary of trading house Mitsui & Co. will be in charge of recruiting backers.
In addition to investing in a mega solar power plant in Okayama Prefecture that GE is involved with, the fund will buy power plants that meet certain conditions such as location and equipment. By purchasing operational equipment, the fund aims to establish a virtuous cycle that allows businesses to reclaim monies expended on development.

According to The Asahi Shimbun, take off your shoes, cosy up on a tatami-floored room and drink in the iconic atmosphere of this ancient capital ... with a cup of coffee at a new Japanese-style Starbucks.
Starbucks Coffee Japan Ltd., the Japanese arm of U.S.-based Starbucks Corp., is "going traditional" in Higashiyama Ward on June 30.
The outlet, the first of its kind in Japan, is located along Nineizaka, a slope leading to the popular tourist destination of Kiyomizudera temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
A two-story wooden house of 270 square meters that was built more than 100 years ago and equipped with three tatami rooms is the new venue. It also provides ordinary table seats for non-traditionalists who don't want to sit on the "floor," and, of course, offers free Wi-Fi.
It's difficult to miss the outlet as the traditional deep blue curtain hanging at the entrance features the Seattle chain's not-quite-so-ancient mermaid logo.
Lines in front of the store are banned to give full consideration to the environment around the cafe.
Business hours are usually from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. but on the first day of June 30 it will open at 1 p.m.

According to The Nikkei Asian Review, restaurant operators in Japan are turning to IT companies like Uber Technologies to improve delivery services, as demand from busy parents and the elderly increases but workers become more difficult to attract and retain.
The moves are part of a larger trend to break down the border between traditional brick-and-mortar businesses and digital services. A growing number of companies are crossing over into each others' realms.
McDonald's Holdings (Japan) announced on Monday that it will introduce Uber's food-delivery service, UberEats, to 33 Tokyo locations starting Thursday. The fast-food chain's own McDelivery service is currently available at a cost of 300 yen ($US 2.69) for orders totaling 1,500 yen or more. UberEats costs 380 yen, but has no such minimum, making it easier for a single household to use.
Customers can place an order through UberEats' smartphone app or website. A registered Uber driver then picks up the food and delivers it. McDonald's Japan will be able to reduce costs because it won't have to pay for delivery staff or their transportation. With the tie-up, the fast-food chain hopes to expand its delivery business. Some McDonald's Japan locations haven't been able to keep up with delivery orders due to a labor shortage.
Eat & Co., which operates Chinese restaurant chain Osaka Ohsho, recently began using internet company Yume No Machi Souzou Iinkai's home-delivery website at a location in Kanagawa Prefecture. The restaurant operator says it has difficulty securing delivery personnel, and is considering turning to virtual mall operator Rakuten's delivery service as well.
Beef bowl purveyor Yoshinoya Holdings also started using Yume no Mach's service for deliveries at some of its locations this month. Meanwhile, Sushiro Global Holdings, operator of sushi chain Sushiro, has teamed up with Uber and Rakuten to begin delivery service.
Demand for food delivery is growing in Japan among groups such as senior citizens, parents with children, and office workers who need to finish lunch quickly. Such services are "convenient when I don't want to go out to eat," said an office worker in her 20s.

According to The Australian Financial Review, BHP Billiton has accelerated the development of its $US2 billion-plus South Flank iron ore mine by approving $US184 million in initial funding for the Pilbara project ahead of a final investment decision expected next year.
Envisaged to replace 80 million tonnes of annual production from its large Yandi mine, the total development cost for South Flank would likely fall between $US2.4 billion and $US3.2 billion ($3.2 billion-$4.2 billion).
In March, BHP flagged South Flank as the preferred option to replace Yandi, which is nearing the end of its economic life and will need to be replaced "in the early-to-mid-2020s".
BHP revealed on Monday it would put the South Flank project to the board by mid-2018. BHP said the development is expected to cost between $US30 and $US40 a tonne.
"The project is expected to be submitted for board approval in the middle of the 2018 calendar year, with first ore targeted in the 2021 calendar year and ramp-up timed to coincide with the ramp-down of Yandi," BHP said.

According to The Australian Financial Review, with prices for liquefied natural gas falling 40% and coal 30% from recent highs, electricity users in Japan stand to eventually enjoy lower rates.
LNG has traded at around US$5.50 per million Btu on the spot market lately. Spot LNG prices surged to the high US$9 range in January, a few months after the suspension of nuclear reactors in South Korea and troubles at an Australian LNG production facility. But prices began heading lower again after the impact of these events eased.
Supply has been increasing as Australian and Russian production facilities have gone into service. But Japan, the world's biggest LNG importer, has cut back on imports for two years in a row, with 2016 figures showing a 2% year-on-year drop. In this environment, spot prices are "highly likely to remain at low levels," said a specialist at the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp.
Prices of thermal coal, another major fuel for power generation, have followed a similar pattern. China's coal imports surged after the government moved to limit days of operation at mines. This lifted Asian-benchmark spot prices in Australia to US$115 per ton, the highest in four and a half years, last November. But with Beijing taking steps to hold down prices at home, spot prices later declined to around US$80.
Oil now trades nearly 20% lower than at the start of the year, with futures in New York at around US$43 a barrel. Despite OPEC's recent deal to extend output reductions, many experts still expect bringing down excessive inventories to take time. This points to lower fuel costs for electric companies, since crude prices are used to set bulk prices of C heavy oil used in power generation.
Electricity rates in Japan are adjusted monthly to automatically reflect changes in fuel prices. With utilities procuring fuel mainly through long-term contracts, lower spot prices do not necessarily mean cheaper power right away. But lower prices will be reflected in rates over time, since spot prices will be used as a basis for negotiation when renewing supply contracts.

According to The Australian Financial Review, another agent-free residential platform, MiSale, has launched in NSW and Victoria following its success in Queensland this year.
MiSale calls the model "an upfront fee Real Estate Agent". For a one-off fee of $2999 vendors get a valuation report, an agent inspection, and full sale service including photography, advertising, negotiations and help with contracts of sale and conveyancing.
For others who want to use the site for advertising without a real-life agent, listing is free.
The group said since launching in Queensland this year, the platform has facilitated close to $12 million in sales and saved users $293,000 in commissions.
"We are facilitating the conversation between seller and buyer with our easy-to-use messaging platform that we believe is miles in front of our competitors," co-founder Ewen Malcolm said.
The platform also offers selected services such as solicitors and mortgage brokers, accessible on the platform.

According to The Nikkei Asian Review, Japanese information technology company NEC has developed a system using artificial intelligence technology to detect faulty products on assembly lines, as manufacturers look to improve efficiency and reduce staff amid Japan's worsening labour shortage.
The system takes pictures of products flowing down the line, inspecting specified characteristics in one to two seconds. It can detect imperfections that are difficult to find with typical inspection equipment, such as stains, various types of damage and irregular colour. If X-ray images are used, even foreign material inside food products can be spotted.
Tests were performed at 30 companies, including leading auto parts manufacturers, and found similar defect detection rates to those of humans at over 90%. Only defective products would require reinspection by workers, allowing for a two-thirds reduction in such personnel. Existing inspection equipment at the companies tested has a detection rate of about 80%, and each line has people perform the reinspections.
NEC is strong in technologies that can catch and analyse the characteristics of and slight differences between photos. The AI creates a predictive model after learning colour and damage features from hundreds of images. Currently, specialists have to input such information for each product in advance. Such work can be eliminated with NEC's system.
AI-equipped inspection systems are still rare worldwide. Usage fees, excluding initial investment costs, are about 300,000 yen (US$2,692) per month for each production line.

According to The Australian Financial Review, private equity-backed Lyon Group is launching a $660 million combined solar and storage project in north-west Victoria backed by Mitsubishi and others, the sort of investment it says will be at the heart of the future power grid.
To be built in the Sunraysia township of Nowingi the project is one of three ventures worth almost $2 billion that will be underpinned by what Lyon partner David Green describes as a "world-first" tender to utilities, retailers and energy users offering services from power-on-demand to frequency and network control.
Lyon will on Tuesday seek expressions of interest from electricity market participants - including generators, network owners and energy users - for contracts and other services to cover up to 640 megawatt-hours of storage capacity from the three projects across Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.
Lyon, a Brisbane-based partnership whose backers include Mitsubishi of Japan, US hedge fund Magnetar Capital and others, will finalise the design of the storage systems depending on which contracts are signed in the tender.
The tender will also offer products from two other Lyon projects, the already-announced Cape York venture in Queensland, costing up to $200 million, and the $1 billion Riverland project in South Australia. Services on offer include energy price arbitrage, load shifting, "firming" back-up power, and other "ancillary" functions.
Mr Green said the tender "turns the market on its head" by offering a range of potential services from batteries to networks, generators and energy users, instead of responding to a specific need of a market player.
The Nowingi project's 2.3 million solar panels, with a capacity of 250 megawatts, will charge an 80 megawatt battery storage system able to run for about two hours, making it the world's second-biggest after the Riverland venture, announced in March. Construction will start in June, involving 250 jobs, with the project to be running in December.

According to The Nikkei Asian Review, Japan's publicly traded companies are offering more board seats to foreigners amid a growing realization that diversity can help with overseas expansion.
The number of foreign directors is set to climb 30% to 56 at 100 big companies sampled by The Nikkei, assuming shareholders approve outstanding nominations at meetings this month.
That will mean foreigners sitting on the boards of 28 of the companies. Of that number, 13 would have two or more foreign directors. Foreigners would make up about 5% of the total number of directors at all the companies, up 1 percentage point from before the shareholder meetings.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is nominating a foreign board candidate for the first time -- two in fact, including Tarisa Watanagase, a former Bank of Thailand governor. The Tokyo-based banking group said it seeks to adapt to globalization by "welcoming candidates from North America and Asia, our largest markets after Japan."
Mitsui & Co. looks to welcome Samuel Walsh, the ex-chief executive officer of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, as an outside director. The trading house says it aims to capitalize on Walsh's resource-sector expertise.
SoftBank Group has nominated five new foreigners to sit on its board, which would bring the total to seven. The Japanese tech group seeks to speed up decision-making on overseas operations. The candidates include Simon Segars, CEO of U.K. chipmaker ARM Holdings, which SoftBank acquired last year, as well as Yasir Al Rumayyan, managing director of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.
Electronics maker Sharp, Takeda Pharmaceutical and financial services company Orix also plan to bring aboard more foreign directors.
A pay gap between Japan and other countries has contributed to the difficulty of getting more foreigners on Japanese boards. But a jump in overseas acquisitions has pushed Japanese companies to try harder.
A growing number of companies now "seek individuals who can hit the ground running," according to Shigeru Matsumoto, a managing director at the Japan Association of Corporate Directors.
Companies also see increasing the diversity on their boards, both in terms of nationality and gender, as contributing to improving corporate governance.

According to The Australian Financial Review, Transgrid, the NSW transmission monopoly, will install Tesla Powerpack batteries at sites around NSW to help smooth the intermittent supply of wind and solar energy and trial "demand response" – a method of avoiding blackouts and moderating prices.
The first installation of a 250 kilowatt, 500KW/h Powerpack will be at the City of Sydney's Alexandra Canal Works depot in the coming months.
An immediate response is needed because wholesale power prices have virtually doubled in the past five years, forcing some energy-hungry heavy industry to the brink of closure and adding to the hip-pocket pressure on households.
Demand response is a process where customers are offered financial incentives to curb their power usage at times of peak grid demand and send surplus power from solar panels, batteries, smart thermostats on energy-hungry airconditioners, pool pumps and electric vehicle chargers back to the grid to help avoid blackouts.
TransGrid chief executive Paul Italiano said demand management deployed at scale would help to relieve stress during peak demand around the Sydney CBD. Demand management could also reduce or defer the capital expenditure on TransGrid's electricity network, ultimately reducing the cost of bills. The batteries are managed remotely and in real time by TransGrid.
Demand management is one of the measures that experts hope can restore stability to the fragile power grid and keep heavy industry here, and software firms and some retailers are already running their own trials.
The Powerpack battery will be discharged when network congestion occurs in metropolitan Sydney. To minimise bills, charging the battery at night and discharging during the day will reduce the site load during peak hours. The batteries can also be used to maximise use of onsite solar PV generation.
The trial will also help TransGrid understand how much the solar PV output of the site can vary across the day and to how much to dispatch accordingly.
Such a trial could provide further insight into the potential for larger-scale battery installations across the grid.